Conveying data from a hardware device to a circuit simulation

• US 8,380,481 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2012
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CommWorks Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Ionipas Transfer Company LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Zeidman, Robert Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Kamini S
• Assistant Examiner(s): LUU, CUONG V
• Application Number:
  US13/487,750
• Publication Number:
  US 20120245916A1
• Time in Patent Office: 260 Days
• Field of Search: 703/13, 703/14, 703/15, 703/20, 703/21, 370/353, 370/352, 370/349, 709/200, 709/228
• US Class Current: 703/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/33 Design verification, e.g. functional simulation or model checking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols

Abstract

A system and method is described for connecting a logic circuit simulation to a hardware peripheral that includes a computer running software for communicating data to and from the hardware peripheral. The software transmits the data received from the hardware peripheral to the device being simulated by the logic circuit simulation. The computer also transmits the data received from the device being simulated by the electronic circuit simulation to the hardware peripheral. This allows the user to test the device being simulated using real hardware for input and output instead of simulated hardware.

Claims

1. A method of conveying data to a circuit simulator program, comprising:

receiving data at a computer system from a non-emulated peripheral device at a first rate;

the computer system temporarily storing the received data in a buffer implemented in a memory of the computer system; and

the computer system transferring at least a portion of the temporarily stored data to a circuit simulator program, wherein the circuit simulator program simulates an electronic device designed to interact with the non-emulated peripheral device, and wherein the transferring occurs at a second rate that is less than the first rate.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the computer system, prior to said transferring, repackaging the at least a portion of the temporarily stored data into a data format compatible with the circuit simulator program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein electronics of the non-emulated peripheral device are configured to perform one or more functions of the non-emulated peripheral device in real-time, and wherein the simulated electronic device is designed to receive input generated by the one or more functions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a first thread of a program executing on the computer system receives the data from the non-emulated peripheral device;

and

wherein the method further comprises;

a second thread of the program executing on the computer system receiving additional data from the circuit simulator program, wherein the additional data was transmitted responsive to transferring the at least a portion of the temporarily stored data to the circuit simulator program; and

the second thread transmitting the additional data to the non-emulated peripheral device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein for a given data packet received by the second thread from the circuit simulator program, the second thread transmits data from the data packet to the non-emulated peripheral device before the second thread receives a next data packet from the circuit simulator program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-emulated peripheral device operates in real-time and was not programmed with instructions by a party that is using the computer system to perform testing on the simulated electronic device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the circuit simulator program is executing on the computer system.

8. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that are executable to cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

receiving data from a non-emulated peripheral device at a first rate;

temporarily storing the received data in a buffer implemented in a memory of the computer system; and

transferring at least a portion of the temporarily stored data to a circuit simulator program, wherein the circuit simulator program simulates an electronic device designed to interact with the non-emulated peripheral device, and wherein the transferring occurs at a second rate that is less than the first rate.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the non-emulated peripheral device is configured to perform one or more functions of the non-emulated peripheral device in real-time in order to produce output data, wherein the electronic device is designed to receive and operate on the produced output data, and wherein the non-emulated peripheral device is non-reprogrammable to cause at least one of the one or more functions to be performed differently.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise transferring the at least a portion of the temporarily stored data to the circuit simulator by bypassing an operating system of the computer system.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving user input data; and

initiating a plurality of threads in response to the user input data, wherein the plurality of threads transfer data between the circuit simulator program and the non-emulated peripheral device.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise modifying the data received from the non-emulated peripheral device to a format acceptable to the circuit simulator program, wherein the data received from the non-emulated peripheral device is originally received in a different format.

13. A computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a peripheral connection interface; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by the processor to cause the computer system to perform operations comprising;

receiving data via the peripheral connection interface from a non-emulated peripheral device, wherein the data is received at a first rate;

creating a buffer in a memory of the computer system;

temporarily storing the received data in the buffer; and

transferring at least a portion of the temporarily stored data to a circuit simulator program, wherein the circuit simulator program simulates an electronic device designed to interact with the non-emulated peripheral device, wherein the transferring occurs at a second rate that is less than the first rate.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the data is received in a first quantity over a first length of time;

wherein the at least a portion of the data is transferred in a second quantity over a second length of time, wherein the second quantity is less than the first quantity; and

wherein the second quantity divided by the second length of time yields the second rate that is less than the first rate.

15. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise receiving the data via device driver software for the non-emulated peripheral device that is running on the computer system.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the device driver software is part of an operating system of the computer system.

17. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise causing additional data to be transmitted from the circuit simulator program to the peripheral device, wherein the additional data is transmitted responsive to the circuit simulator program receiving and processing the at least a portion of the temporarily stored data.

18. The computer system of claim 13, further comprising the peripheral device, wherein the peripheral device is coupled to the peripheral connection interface, and wherein the peripheral device is configured and the electronic device is designed to receive and process data transmitted via one or more communication protocols that are operable over the peripheral connection interface.

19. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise modifying the received data prior to said transferring.